(Combines earlier stories, adds details)

     By Hatice Aydogdu

     ANKARA, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Economy Minister Kemal Dervis said on Monday the crisis following attacks on the United States highlighted Turkey's strategic importance at the edge of the Middle East and allies should consider the cost to Ankara.

     Turkey is currently going through an economic slump that broke in February with a banking crisis, a 50 percent fall in the value of the currency and the collapse of a counter- inflation plan. It is struggling to maintain a new programme backed by $15.7 billion in IMF and World Bank loans.

     ``Turkey's strategic importance for the European Union and NATO is rising and within this strategic framework Western allies should consider the cost that Turkey will have to bear,'' Dervis told reporters in Ankara.

     Turkey says that since the Gulf War, sanctions against Iraq, once a major trading partner, have cost it some $35 billion.

     Turkey, bordering the Caucasus, Syria, Iran and Iraq, has said it would provide support for the United States in its response to the attacks on Washington and New York that have killed thousands. The United States already has a large military presence in the country.

     Dervis said the fallout from the devastating attacks in the United States last week could hurt the Turkish economy, particularly tourism and exports.

     He said it could take time for Turkey to secure new foreign financing from private sources as envisaged in the IMF programme and a eurobond issue scheduled for September might be postponed.

     But Dervis said Turkey was able to delay repayment of part of $5 billion it is due to remit to the IMF next year, and Ankara has discussed that with the IMF. He did not say whether the IMF had agreed to such a postponement but an IMF source in Washington said last week such a move should not be a problem.

     THE IMF PROGRAMME ``WILL CONTINUE''

     Dervis said Turkey was not at present seeking any additional international funding from institutions beyond the terms of a $15.7 billion package agreed with the IMF and World Bank in May after the financial crisis in February.

     ``The thing that has to be done right now is we have to state clearly that the programme will continue,'' Dervis said.

     Dervis said that despite the worsened global economic outlook he did not expect major changes in Turkey's end-2001 macroeconomic targets, though there could be small changes.

     Treasury Undersecretary Faik Oztrak said at the same meeting with reporters that under current debt circumstances there was no possibility of raising spending or cutting taxes in order to spark growth.

     Turkey's domestic debt has been swollen by massive issuance to cover bank restructuring and persistantly high interest rates have made it punishingly expensive to service the debt. Bond yields have risen again since the U.S. attacks.

     Turkey was forced to float the lira on February 22, abandoning a crawling currency peg that had been the centrepiece of a three-year IMF-backed disinflation programme. The lira has since lost around 50 percent of its value against the dollar.

     In May Ankara signed a deal with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank for $15.7 billion of loans to overcome the crisis, in return for which it promised wide-ranging reforms.